The latest updates aim to make communication more dynamic and content more engaging.

Earlier this month, Snap officials announced the company reached a milestone during the second quarter: 850 million monthly active users.

“Our community grew to reach more than 850 million monthly active users in Q2, with more than 11 million Snapchat+ subscribers,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an earnings release, as the company moves toward its goal of 1 billion monthly users.

Inroads to User Engagement

During the second quarter of 2024, Snapchat introduced several innovations to enrich user interactions and increase engagement. One of the features, Map Reactions, allows users to send emojis on the Snap Map, creating a new way to start conversations and share moments with friends. This addition is part of Snapchat’s broader strategy to make communication more expressive and engaging.

Another update, Editable Chats, lets users modify messages within five minutes of sending, adding a layer of flexibility to conversations. Additionally, the My AI Reminders feature enables users to set alerts for deadlines, helping them stay organized and connected in their daily lives.

Snap’s strategy to drive daily active user growth and engagement is focused on improving the way Snapchatters communicate and interact with their friends, family and the world, Spiegel noted.

“We have delivered a number of new communication features and user experience enhancements in recent months to execute on this strategic initiative,” he said in the company’s Q2 shareholder letter.

“These improvements have contributed to all-time highs in the number of daily active users sending Snaps in every region, which is an important input to sustained daily engagement,” he added in the letter.

Global time spent watching content increased 25% year over year and 10% quarter over quarter, driven by the popularity of Spotlight and Creator Stories, the letter said. Snapchat is unifying its content ranking models across these platforms to deliver consistently engaging material. The number of creators submitting Spotlight content grew by over 20% year over year, highlighting the platform’s expanding content ecosystem and role in fostering creativity.

Partnerships for User Experiences

Meanwhile, the company’s partnership with Live Nation, branded as Snap Nation, marks an expansion in content offerings, providing Snapchatters with exclusive access to tour and festival experiences.

Machine learning and generative artificial intelligence are at the heart of Snapchat’s strategy to deepen user connections and enrich experiences. The company is using these technologies to improve content ranking and personalization, ensuring that users see more of what interests them. Enhancements in AR Lens recommendations are designed to make interactions more engaging and tailored to individual preferences.

Augmented reality (AR) continues to be a central focus, with Snapchatters increasingly sharing AR Lens experiences. The number of Snapchatters sharing AR Lens experiences with their friends rose by 12% year over year, driven by the popularity of new generative AI lenses. The ML Scribble World Lens, which transforms users into cartoon-style versions of themselves, was viewed over 1 billion times, Spiegel noted in the letter. The 90s AI Lens attracted more than 20% of U.S. Snapchatters.

Also in the quarter, a generative AI Lens was launched in collaboration with Beyoncé for her “Cowboy Carter” album. This lens achieved 80 million engagements in just three days, illustrating the impact of integrating high-profile collaborations with innovative technology, the letter said.

Another new addition engaging Snapchatters is Snapchat’s Lens Studio 5.0, per the letter. With a new GenAI Suite, creators can generate lenses quickly using text prompts without coding skills. The tool is part of Snapchat’s broader effort to cultivate a creator community and drive further innovation in AR experiences.

Snapchat is also making investments to enhance the performance of its iOS app, the letter said. These improvements include better battery management, faster app and screen loading, and enhanced camera quality.

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We started in the world of banking architecture. In “Galileo Says Wire Transfers Go Big and Go Digital With New APIs,” Galileo Financial Technologies Chief Product Officer David Feuer told PYMNTS that same-day, faster wire transfers are set to help transform a broad line of business and consumer use cases with real-time notifications. “While FedNow brings this real-time API nature” to transactions, “it’s still at the end of the day using Fedwire, which is terrific because as we build this wires functionality on top of Fedwire, we can add FedNow as an iterative feature set on top of it and not have to completely rebuild our connectivity to the Fed,” he said. “Creating a developer-friendly interface in front of Fedwire makes it much more easily consumable and quick because it’s bringing that speed of API to a system that wasn’t always API-enabled. Being able to provide APIs in front of it and getting that wire sent very quickly and settled very quickly really brings that physiological safety to the customer where they know the transaction has occurred and settled and is irrevocable.”

Then we shifted to digital healthcare. In an era where digital transformation is sweeping across industries, the healthcare sector finds itself grappling with the challenge of modernizing its payment systems. In “The Road to Digital Healthcare Payments Starts With a Few Cashless Steps, Says Bank of America,” Simon Abtalion, healthcare solutions executive at Bank of America, told us: “Historically, [as it relates to payment flows between patients, providers and payors,] healthcare has not been a leader in technology adoption nor deployment, and … for that reason, it’s been challenging to keep up with the evolving needs and expectations of patients.”

It was a big week for retailing interviews. Here we started with an interview with Grubhub’s Kiran Chandran, the aggregator’s vice president of product and design, who discussed how transparency will encourage shoppers to trade up. In “Grubhub VP Says in-App Wallet Could Boost Average Check,” we learned that the company announced earlier this month the launch of several new features, including an in-app digital wallet that shows consumers the credits they have available, such as gift cards and rewards benefits. “By seeing it first thing, users are able to better assess the credit they have available, which they then keep top of mind throughout the ordering process,” Chandran said. “For example, a user could open the app, see their available funds and be pleasantly surprised that they have more credit than they originally thought. This might encourage them to add a side to an entree or get a dessert or drink with their meal as well.”

We also landed an interview with Macy’s. In “Macy’s VP: Restructuring Aims to Elevate Customer Experience and Drive Growth,” PJ Singh, vice president of stores strategy and product management at Macy’s, discussed the company’s reorganization strategy. “It is rooted in investments and learnings that we’ve iterated over the past year, but more importantly, it’s a signal to our organization that is driving a major shift in culture,” Singh said. “We believe that a more engaged and inspired colleague community is vital before you go external and reach your customer. As a result, we are taking an inside-out approach to delivering customer experience and challenging ourselves on the things our customers have told us are points of friction.”

On the social commerce side of the house, in “QVC CEO Aims Social Commerce at Gen Z Parents,” Qurate Retail President and CEO David Rawlinson talked about how the live shopping brand’s Age of Possibility campaign, launched in the spring, has enabled it “to better serve the attractive demographic of women 50-plus,” collaborating with 50 celebrity women over the age of 50. The campaign has been successful at drawing digital engagement. “Since launch, we have experienced strong initial reaction to this campaign, with 38 billion earned media impressions, 330,000 new Facebook community members, a nearly 200% increase in the number of QVC social followers and more than 1 million visits to [the] QVC campaign website,” Rawlinson said. “We saw strong demand from Age-of-Possibility-related brands in Q2, with collective demand for the existing 12 brands up low-double-digits after the campaign launch.”

And as always, we end with fraud. “In Putting ‘Scam Dens’ Out of Business Means Using AI to Fight AI,” we learned that Featurespace has been investing in advanced algorithms to underpin fraud prevention efforts. Last year it launched TallierLTM, the world’s first large transaction model, which uses generative AI to improve fraud value detection by up to 71%. “What OpenAI did around language and words, we’ve created for the payments environment — modeling what genuine behaviors and transactions will look like,” said Featurespace Chief Operating Officer Tim Vanderham told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster. “When you think about the billions and billions of dollars that come from scams globally,” the money made from illicit gains overshadows the revenues of some of the largest businesses around the globe. “We have to make sure that we’re using advanced data algorithms and machine learning over this data to combat the fraud and to do everything we can to allow consumers to transact more freely.”

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And with the news that the autonomous delivery robot marketplace is getting a shot in the arm from artificial intelligence (AI), observers are wondering just when self-driving, autonomous vehicles will be a scalable, real-world reality.

After all, it was just this week that Alphabet announced in its quarterly materials and earnings call that it was investing an additional $5 billion in Waymo, the autonomous-driving business that originally took to the road over a decade and a half ago as Google’s own self-driving car project. Waymo has yet to turn a profit.

Meanwhile, General Motors (GM) said on Tuesday (July 23) it was “indefinitely suspending” work on Origin, the name of the autonomous vehicle produced by GM’s self-driving subsidiary Cruise. Cruise’s driverless taxi product, for its part, has restarted test operations in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix, the company said during its Tuesday earnings call, noting that the service is in a testing phase-only and will not be open to customers.

“Our vision to transform mobility using autonomous technology is unchanged, and every mile traveled, and every simulation, brings us closer because Cruise is an AI-first company,” said GM CEO Mary Barra in her most recent shareholder letter.

Electric vehicle (EV) automaker Tesla, perhaps the company most synonymous with self-driving cars, or at least promises of them, is postponing its planned Aug. 8 robotaxi unveiling to October. CEO Elon Musk had predicted in 2019 that Tesla would launch a robotaxi by 2020.

“The value of Tesla overwhelmingly is autonomy,” Musk said on the company’s earnings call Tuesday. “These other things are in the noise relative to autonomy.”

Read more: From Factories to the Fast Lane, Unpacking Autonomy’s Potential

Transforming the Connected Supply Chain and Digital Economy

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) encompass a broad range of technologies that enable vehicles to operate without human intervention. This category includes self-driving cars, trucks, drones and other robotic delivery systems. The development of AVs is being driven by advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensors, and connectivity, with major players and upstarts alike leading the charge.

One of those upstarts, Kodiak, announced on Tuesday that it plans to launch a fully driverless commercial trucking service in partnership with Atlas Energy Solutions, a provider of sand and oilfield logistics.

“The Permian Basin’s expansive private lease road network, which expands across the Delaware and Midland Basins, is an ideal environment in which to introduce autonomous trucking in North America,” Atlas Chief Supply Chain Officer Chris Scholla said in a statement.

“Deploying driverless trucks with Atlas marks the beginning of a new era for autonomous vehicles,” Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette added. “Our partnership with Atlas will make us the first autonomous semi-truck company to establish commercial driverless operations, and the first company to make autonomous trucking a real business. We look forward to scaling our trucking product not only in the Permian Basin, but also over-the-road.”​​

Elsewhere, Toyota-backed startup May Mobility announced last week (July 16) that more than 10,000 riders have used its goMARTI autonomous vehicle service in Grand Rapids, Minn. since its launch in September 2022.

“I believe in our lifetime, not just automobiles, but every piece of moving machinery on the face of the earth will be automated. And the smart infrastructure that oversees it and supports it will also be automated,” May Mobility CFO Anna Brunelle told PYMNTS in February for the series “Day In The Life Of A CFO.”

Read more: Musk’s xAI Plans Spotlight Tesla’s Autonomy Challenges

The Ongoing Challenges to Unlocking Autonomy’s Potential

While the potential benefits of autonomous vehicles are substantial, their widespread adoption also presents challenges. These include regulatory hurdles, cybersecurity risks and the potential displacement of jobs in sectors such as trucking and logistics. Ensuring the safety and reliability of AVs is paramount, particularly in mixed-traffic environments where human drivers and autonomous vehicles must coexist.

As PYMNTS previously reported, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems following crashes that continued to occur despite a December recall of over 2 million vehicles.

“The environment is becoming much more complex to manage, which is where more advanced technologies come into the picture, and why you need data,” NoTraffic CEO and Co-founder Tal Kreisler told PYMNTS in April about connected autonomous systems.

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We started the week with an innovative twist on car financing. In “CarPutty Shifts Gears on How Consumers Finance Their Cars,” CEO Joshua Tatum told us that CarPutty’s own V3 tool (it stands for valuations past, present and future) uses artificial intelligence (AI) to give car owners greater insight into the value of their vehicles. By analyzing tens of thousands of data points per vehicle identification number (VIN), V3 provides real-time and predictive valuations. Consumers can track their car’s current worth, historical value, and projected future value, transforming how they view their vehicles. “It makes the consumer look at cars as assets versus depreciating assets,” Tatum said. “When the tires wear out, people can now make an informed decision on when to offload their car.”

Top of mind for this week were the interviews we did with industry influencers about the first anniversary of the FedNow platform. In “First the Launch, Then the Execution: FedNow Turns One,” Eric Foust, vice president of banking partnerships for North America at open banking and pay-by-bank provider Trustly, told PYMNTS that one year into its lifecycle, FedNow has garnered a lot of attention, but the follow-through and embrace of instant payments will require significant education, especially for consumers. “There is still a lot the industry can do to help educate the consumers,” he said, adding, “There’s going to be a maturation process where the knowledge that’s obtained on the business side, so individuals who are dealing with these payments on a day-to-day basis” impart their knowledge “to individuals who are way outside of the payment world and don’t touch the payments on a day-to-day basis.”

Foust was joined in the FedNow camp by i2c Global Head of Product Seth Perlman. In “FedNow’s First Year: Path to Critical Mass Requires Time and Education,” beyond the benefits of speed, Perlman said there’s value to glean from the data accompanying the payments, standardized through ISO 20022. “When you talk about attaching robust payment invoice and other potentially trade finance data to a transaction, that’s what really unlocks real-time payments as a valuable network for business-to-business transactions and, more complicated types of payments,” he said.

There were several earnings calls this week, among them Alphabet, which checked in with record quarterly results, but spent most of the time on its call discussing its usage of and plans for AI. In “Alphabet Touts Organic AI Development in Q2 Earnings Beat,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told the audience: “Our research and infrastructure leadership means we can pursue an in-house strategy that enables our product teams to move quickly. Combined with our model-building expertise, we are in a strong position to control our destiny as the technology continues to evolve. Importantly, we are innovating at every layer of AI stack, from chips to agents and beyond. A huge strength. We are committed to this leadership long term.”

And as we do every week, we covered the cybersecurity beat, this time coming off a weekend that saw a major IT outage at the hands of Crowdstrike. It was one of the topics we discussed with Prove CEO Rodger Desai. In “Bot? Fraudster? New Technology Finds Legit Users Without Compromising User Experience,” he talked about the use of AI agents to assist consumers in financial tasks, such as consolidating debt or refinancing a mortgage.

“Many businesses will offer AI agents to consumers to make their lives easier and to save money … but with that comes the challenge of, ‘Can you trust this agent to go and do things on your behalf?’ and ‘Can the bank trust that the AI agent is representing you?’” Desai said. “Identity is going to be a crucial ingredient to enabling this.”

Not that it was all business. There was after all, chocolate. In “Shop Talk: High-End Consumers Swap Fancy Threads for Fancy Sweets,” we found out that as consumers cut back on many premium products in the face of ongoing economic challenges, luxury chocolate brand MarieBelle New York is benefitting from shoppers’ desire to enjoy high-end experiences without breaking the bank. Maribel Lieberman, the brand’s founder, said shoppers seeking luxury experiences, either for themselves or to gift, are turning to these elevated chocolates to satisfy that need without shelling out thousands of dollars. “Through these economic challenges, chocolate is still something that people buy, because first of all, it’s something satisfying that can make them happy. Second, it’s a gift that’s beautifully presented, it’s delicious, and compared to, say, a handbag that costs a few thousand dollars, [it’s affordable],” Lieberman said. “So, for me, it really doesn’t make a difference when we have economic challenges like we’re going through right now.”

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“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (July 22) morning.

Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2024

As with many Musk pronouncements that make headlines, this one came in response to a post from another user, who had put up a chart showing former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo’s predictions for advances in artificial intelligence (AI).

Musk had told investors in April that Tesla’s humanoid robot project, Optimus, “will be in the factory doing useful tasks by the end of the year. Optimus will be more valuable than anything else Tesla does combined.”

During that same earnings call, the CEO promised a “sentient humanoid robot able to navigate reality and do tasks ad hoc. That’s what is going to happen, and Tesla is best positioned of any robot maker to reach volume reduction with efficient inference on the robot itself.”

Weeks earlier, Musk had said the company would debut a robotaxi on August 8, a thing the multibillionaire had been promising since 2019.

Tesla’s autonomous vehicle efforts have hit roadblocks recently, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seeking more information from the company about its autopilot system after crashes continued despite a December recall of more than two million vehicles.

And the Department of Justice is investigating whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles’ self-driving capabilities.

“But while the open road presents several challenges for autonomous solutions, the closed-loop ecosystem of warehouses and distribution centers provides a different arena for the innovative technology to operate across,” PYMNTS wrote in May.

As Anna Brunelle, CFO at May Mobility, said here in February, “I believe in our lifetime, not just automobiles, but every piece of moving machinery on the face of the earth will be automated. And the smart infrastructure that oversees it and supports it will also be automated.”

The marketplace is responding to both the need and the opportunity presented by autonomous vehicles, with companies like Figure teaming with BMW to deploy general purpose robots in automotive manufacturing environments.

Walmart, meanwhile, has begun quietly transforming its distribution centers by rolling out 19 autonomous electric forklifts across four of its facilities, marking a significant advancement in the use of AI-powered robotics in industrial settings.

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A TikTok video from last year with more than 10 million views, by a user who fittingly goes by @paybyhand on the platform, appears to show the user completing a payment at a fried chicken restaurant using a chip implanted in his hand, much to the confusion and amusement of the server working behind the counter.

Pay-by-hand capabilities are becoming available, as an extension of the contactless payment systems already prevalent with credit cards and smartphones, with provider Walletmor asserting the convenience and futuristic appeal of these implants.

The Guinness World Record holder for the greatest number of technological implants in the body is California-based magician Anastasia Synn, who as of November 2023 had 52 implants. Half of these implants are microchips, which Synn says are shallowly implanted for easier removal.

“I think the Guinness World Records title for the most removal surgeries in one day would be a good one, but possibly one only I could do,” Synn told Guinness World Records.

It is worth noting that many consumers seek out digital payment methods in stores, even if their methods are usually less centered on biohacking. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Wallets Beyond Transactions: U.S. Edition” drew from a survey of more than 2,100 United States consumers to understand their perceptions and use of digital wallets in the last year and into the future. The results revealed that 48% of U.S. consumers have paid for items they bought via eCommerce channels using their digital wallets’ stored payment, while 39% have done so in-store.

Plus, the study found that a small share of consumers wants frictionless digital options for more than just payments. Specifically, 8.7% of consumers said they have used a digital wallet to store credentials that enable nontransactional uses, such as accessing places, events or services.

For advocates, the appeal is clear. No more fumbling for a wallet or worrying about a lost or stolen credit card. The microchip offers an unprecedented level of ease, especially in a world increasingly leaning toward cashless transactions. Early adopters hail from tech-savvy, urban demographics, eager to embrace what they see as the next logical step in the evolution of personal technology.

However, for implantable chips to become a mainstream retail solution, challenges must be addressed. Security concerns, potential health risks and consumer privacy issues all require careful consideration.

Security is a top concern for many shoppers. The PYMNTS Intelligence study “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index: U.S. Edition” found that 40% of U.S. consumers rank this concern as either the most important or “very or extremely important” while shopping online.

“How much are we willing to pay, for the sake of convenience?” FinTech expert Theodora Lau, co-author of the book “Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading a Business Driven Revolution,” told the BBC. “Where do we draw the line when it comes to privacy and security? Who will be protecting the critical infrastructure, and the humans that are part of it?”

For all PYMNTS retail coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail Newsletter.

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That’s according to new research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, released Tuesday (July 9), which showed global PC shipments reaching 64.9 million units in the second quarter of 2024, up 3% since last year.

That number would have been higher if not for slower sales in China, IDC said. Setting aside that country, worldwide shipments climbed more than 5% year over year.

“Make no mistake, the PC market just like other technology markets faces challenges in the near term due to maturity and headwinds,” Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Device Trackers, said in a news release.

“However, two consecutive quarters of growth, combined with plenty of market hype around AI PCs and a less sexy but arguably more important commercial refresh cycle, seems to be what the PC market needed. The buzz is clearly around AI, but a lot is happening with non-AI PC purchasing to make this mature market show signs of positivity.”

IDC noted that most industry players have recently begun outlining strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) powered-personal computers (PCs), with an emphasis on the component side and the commercial market’s potential.

“While IDC believes the commercial market has the biggest short-term upside for AI in the PC industry, the consumer story has yet to be told in full,” the release said. “All eyes are on Apple to drive that message later this year with anticipated product launches, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD are all likely to make noise around both consumer and commercial AI PCs.”

According to IDC’s data, Lenovo led the world in PC shipments during the quarter, selling 14.7 million machines. Apple came in fourth place with 5.7 million and showed the largest turnaround, with shipments up 20.8% year over year.

IDC’s figures follow findings from Morgan Stanley in May, which argued that Microsoft’s new line of AI-ready personal computers could usher in a new wave of PC sales.

The report pointed to a number of factors that could fuel PC sales in the second half of this year and into next: an initial price of $1,000 or more, a commercial PC installed base that is 13% bigger than before the pandemic, and Windows 10’s coming wind-down.

As PYMNTS noted earlier this year, Microsoft’s new “Copilot+ PCs” — a new iteration of Windows machines designed to handle generative AI processes locally — show that the company is “betting that the future of computing will be powered by AI — and that users will want that intelligence at their fingertips rather than in the cloud.”

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The new Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra became available for pre-order in select markets Wednesday (July 10) and will be generally available starting July 24, the company said in a Wednesday press release.

The three products include the company’s Galaxy AI, according to the release.

“The intelligence, guidance and insights that are offered with Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra will help users turn data into meaningful insights and create a whole new era of expanded intelligent health experiences,” TM Roh, president and head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, said in the release.

Galaxy Ring delivers health monitoring, tracking and personalized insights in a package that weighs between 2.3 grams and 3 grams and is designed to be comfortably worn on a finger day and night, according to the release. It uses Galaxy AI to help users understand their sleep patterns, evaluate their physical and mental conditions and develop better habits.

Galaxy Watch7 includes a new AI algorithm for sleep analysis, the release said. It also offers personalized workouts, intelligent and preventative health monitoring capabilities, and detection of potential signs of sleep apnea and abnormal heart rates.

Galaxy Watch Ultra, the newest addition to Samsung’s smartwatch lineup, builds upon the capabilities of the Galaxy Watch7, adding greater durability and a feature that helps users optimize the intensity of their workouts based on their physical capabilities, per the release.

“These new additions to the wearables portfolio are central to Samsung’s vision for Galaxy AI to enhance digital health, delivering personalized insights and tailored health experiences that enable a more comprehensive understanding of yourself through a holistic approach to everyday wellness,” Samsung said in the release.

There has been a proliferation of wearable innovations aggregating diverse fitness data sources, PYMNTS reported in May. Other players in this field include Google and Oura.

AI is also revolutionizing the wellness industry, powering services such as massages, personalized fitness coaching, nutrition planning and mental health support.

The pandemic helped accelerate the momentum of wearables, as the monthly use of the technology by consumers rose from 37% in November 2021 to 42% in October 2022.

For all PYMNTS retail and AI coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail and AI newsletters.

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As the Financial Times (FT) reported Wednesday (June 19), firms such as Google and OpenAI have begun doing tighter screening of employees and potential hires, according to sources working directly with these companies.

It’s a move, the report noted, driven by fears that foreign governments aim to use compromised workers to gain access to intellectual property and corporate data.

The sources told the FT that venture capital companies like Sequoia have also encouraged some companies in its portfolio to do more vetting following warnings that intelligence agencies have set their sights on American tech firms.

Alex Karp, CEO of data analytics contractor Palantir, said Chinese spying on U.S. tech companies was “a huge problem,” particularly for companies that make enterprise software, large language models and weapons systems.

“We have smart adversaries,” Karp said. “Our enemies are ancient cultures fighting for their survival, not just now but for the next thousand years.”

The FT also noted that there are concerns about an increase in xenophobia at U.S. tech companies, considering the prevalence of skilled workers of Asian ancestry.

H.R. McMaster, former White House national security adviser to the U.S. who has advised tech companies and investment firms on foreign espionage risks since entering the private sector, said the threat from Chinese intelligence agencies was “absolutely real and they are persistent.”

“The companies I talk to and work with are very much aware of this right now and are doing everything they can to reduce it,” he said.

These efforts come as tensions between China and the U.S. have led the governments of both countries to institute tech crackdowns.

For example, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law in April that bans TikTok unless its China-based owner ByteDance sells the popular social media platform within a year. The ban is under appeal by the company.

“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok, or any other individual company,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in remarks on the Senate floor before voting on the bill. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel.”

China, meanwhile, has banned iPhone use by government employees and workers at state-owned companies.

This spring, Apple said it pulled WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram and Signal from its App Store in China on the orders of the Cyberspace Administration of China, which cited national security concerns.

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The automaker, whose 14 brands include Chrysler, Fiat and Peugeot, aims to enhance the mobility experience of its customers and boost its revenue from software and connected services, Stellantis said in a Thursday (June 13) press release.

“In a little more than two years we have made a decisive shift from a traditional auto industry mindset to operating much more like a startup company, including a sharp focus on speed and building up our own software creation capabilities,” Yves Bonnefont, chief software officer at Stellantis, said in the release.

One of the automaker’s latest offerings is a ChatGPT-enhanced virtual assistant that can converse with customers in natural language, according to the release. After a pilot in October 2023, this will be rolled out across 20 European countries by the end of 2024.

Another recently introduced product is AppMarket, an in-vehicle hub for services and experiences that allows drivers to purchase subscriptions in the vehicle, the release said. AppMarket is available in North America, and a similar service is offered in Europe

A third new offering, e-Routes, is a mobile app that uses real-time vehicle data to enable the routing of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and to plan stops for charging, per the release. E-Routes is available in Europe and will expand globally this year.

Other connected features available from Stellantis include Free2move Connect Fleet and MyTasks, which empower commercial vehicle users with live data about vehicle health, vehicle location and other work vehicle-oriented tasks, according to the release.

Stellantis currently has a monetizable connected car parc of 13.8 million vehicles around the world, per the release. In 2023, the automaker delivered 94 million over-the-air (OTA) updates and saw its number of users of subscription-based products top 5 million.

“Stellantis is developing connected services and software-enabled features for retail and fleet customers under the philosophy of ‘Make my drive safer, make my life easier, and make my drive more exciting,’” the automaker said in the release.

The global automotive software market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% through the end of the decade, according to “Reshaping Global Business With Connected Vehicles,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express collaboration.

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